Should I start Brenton Strange or Rashod Bateman in Week 8?

The market-based projections

Brenton Strange's market-based projection is 9.3 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 7 market sources. That is the 63rd highest figure of the 200 players with a market-based projection.

Rashod Bateman's market-based projection is 6.7 PPR points a game, built from 3 markets across 10 market sources. That is the 71st highest figure of the 200 players with a market-based projection.

Where the draft room stands

Live drafts hold no current pick on Brenton Strange, and the board ranks him 52nd overall on the rest of his evidence.

Live drafts hold no current pick on Rashod Bateman, and the board ranks him 53rd overall on the rest of his evidence.

This season so far

Through Week 6, Brenton Strange has been on the field for 79 percent of JAX snaps, drawn 19 percent of the targets and had 5 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 8 of the offence's 43 third down targets, had 0 of its 16 chances inside the five and seen 1 of its 23 two minute targets.

His 33 targets have averaged 7.7 air yards.

In Week 4 against CIN he caught 7 of 8 targets for 95 yards and did not score.

In Week 5 against PHI he caught 7 of 8 targets for 68 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against HOU he caught 5 of 7 targets for 44 yards and did not score.

Through Week 7, Rashod Bateman has been on the field for 70 percent of BAL snaps, drawn 13 percent of the targets and had 4 percent of the red zone chances.

He has taken 4 of the offence's 56 third down targets, had 1 of its 25 chances inside the five and seen 9 of its 44 two minute targets.

His 26 targets have averaged 14.0 air yards.

In Week 5 against ATL he caught 5 of 6 targets for 62 yards and did not score.

In Week 6 against CLE he caught 0 of 1 target for 0 yards and did not score.

In Week 7 against CIN he caught 2 of 4 targets for 33 yards and did not score.

Their 2025 seasons

In 2025 Brenton Strange played 12 games and scored 118.0 PPR points, 9.8 a game, finishing TE23.

He caught 46 of 60 targets for 540 yards and 3 touchdowns, with 9 red zone targets.

That came to 5.0 targets a game, a 77 percent catch rate and 11.7 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 76 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

In 2025 Rashod Bateman played 13 games and scored 55.4 PPR points, 4.3 a game, finishing WR102.

He caught 19 of 38 targets for 224 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 8 red zone targets.

That came to 2.9 targets a game, a 50 percent catch rate and 11.8 yards a catch.

He was on the field for 69 percent of the snaps in the games he played.

Rashod Bateman was available for 1 game more.

Side by side

In 2025 Brenton Strange scored 9.8 PPR points a game and Rashod Bateman 4.3, 5.6 a game between them.

Brenton Strange finished TE23 and Rashod Bateman WR102, which are two different ladders.

Brenton Strange is a tight end and Rashod Bateman a wide receiver, so the question is which slot you fill first rather than which of them is better.

Byes and availability

Brenton Strange is off in Week 7 and Rashod Bateman in Week 13, so either can cover the other's bye.

What would change the answer

2.6 points a game is the entire case. The market restates it every week, and a line that moves moves the order with it.

The draft market is the half that is missing: when live drafts hold these two again they can order them differently from the projection, and this page will follow the drafts rather than the market-based projection when they do.